Time for an ‘aggressive climate strategy’

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Sharon Kimathi
Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

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This week’s devastating wildfires and extreme heat appear to be focusing minds.

U.S. President Joe Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency and EU leaders plan to use emergency resources to tackle wildfires sparked by a record-breaking heatwave across the continent.

Firstly in the United States, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jeff Merkley called on Biden to draw attention to climate-related crises in the country. "It is time for the Biden administration to pivot to a very aggressive climate strategy," Merkley said.

Biden said last week that he would take unspecified steps to reduce climate emissions after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin withdrew support for climate legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass before Congress leaves Washington for its August recess. In the evenly divided Senate, Manchin's support was critical for passage of the legislation, which lacked any Republican backing.

Manchin and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer had been in talks about $300 billion in tax credits for industries including solar and wind power, carbon capture from power plants, and nuclear power, which generates virtually emissions-free electricity. In an interview, First Solar CEO Mark Widmar said that without the Democratic-backed climate change bill there was no incentive for manufacturers to build solar equipment factories in the United States.

Meanwhile, the European Union is in talks with manufacturers to buy firefighting planes to battle the increased risk of severe wildfires like those raging in Southern Europe, the bloc's head of crisis management told Reuters. The EU's emergency resource currently involves coordinating and funding the deployment of 12 firefighting airplanes and a helicopter pooled by EU countries.

But as emergency requests are expected to grow because of climate change, the EU plans to invest in crisis-response aircraft, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said. Thousands of firefighters across southern Europe were battling hundreds of wildfires in countries including Portugal, Spain and France, amid an intense heatwave that has caused hundreds of deaths.

Britain was forecast to see temperatures hit 40C (104F) for the first time on Tuesday after logging its warmest night on record as the heatwave edged northwards. Southern and western Germany and Belgium were also braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures, with many scientists pointing the finger of blame at climate change.

A study released on Monday showed that extreme heat, drought and floods caused by climate change cost Germany at least 6.6 billion euros ($6.69 billion) in damages annually on average in the past two decades, with some severe episodes pushing losses into the tens of billions.

Talking Points

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., June 30, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

•	Investors resumed deposits into U.S. sustainable funds last month, marking a return to the norm after net withdrawals in May broke a three-year streak of monthly inflows, researcher Morningstar said on Monday.

•	Explainer: The "S" in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing moved into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic as companies faced concerns about employee wellbeing and bold calls for action on social inequality.

•	Canada on Monday launched consultations on a plan to cap and cut greenhouse gasses from the oil and gas sector, its largest and fastest-growing source of emissions, outlining two options to help achieve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's climate promises.

•	S&P 500 chief executives made $18.3 million on average in 2021, 324 times the pay of their median workers and higher than the ratio in 2020, the top American labor union federation reported on Monday.

•	Comment: As the travel sector seeks to recover from the pandemic, business travel will be crucial to the sector’s fortunes. But when it comes to sustainability, business travel is a big part of the problem.

In Conversation

Randall J. Miller, global advanced manufacturing & mobility leader at multinational professional services firm EY

“Outside of certain sub-sectors with higher public profiles (e.g., automotive or chemicals), many industrial companies have been able to fly below the radar and avoid engaging meaningfully on sustainability issues. However, the massive environmental ‘footprint’ of industrial products and processes over their lifespans means the imperative — and opportunity — related to more sustainable solutions is clear.

“Considering the business characteristics of many industrial companies, this lower prioritization of environmental initiatives is perhaps understandable. Longer product life cycles, complex manufacturing processes, demanding customer requirements and mission-critical applications make implementing sustainability programs highly complex. To date, industrial companies have had higher hurdles and fewer incentives to choose a greener path.

“Yet, for firms that make the effort, the benefits can be significant. Companies with high ESG marks are securing valuation premiums, with chemicals and materials firms reflecting the greatest impact — a 116% valuation premium in the US and 229% in the EU — and industrial products manufacturers are seeing modest benefits as well.”

ESG Lens

Global issuance of bonds focused on environmental or social projects fell in the first half of the year as supranational issuers scaled back activity and broad market sentiment was hit by war in Ukraine and rising interest rates.

Issuance of social, green or sustainability bonds, a blend of both, fell 23% to $428 billion in the opening six months of the year from the year earlier period, against a 13% fall to $4.7 trillion for the broader market, Refinitiv data showed.

ESG Movers and Shakers

Audrey Copeland has joined U.S.-based renewable energy company Spearmint Energy as its senior vice president of strategy and origination. Copeland brings more than 15 years of renewable energy and sustainability experience having worked across both utility-scale and distributed generation projects. She recently served as the senior director of energy storage development at South Korean photovoltaic solar cells manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells.

Dermot Nolan, former CEO of Energy Regulator Ofgem, joins the cleantech local energy market technology company Sitigrid as a strategic advisor. Nolan joins other industry experts on the Sitigrid team including Jeff Whittingham who has held senior positions in energy companies including Orsted UK, British Gas, RWE and United Utilities. He is also joined by Mark Bygraves, who was recently the CEO of Elexon, a British-based energy firm.

U.S.-based luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue has appointed Dr. Alicia Williams as vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). She will be responsible for furthering Saks’ progress on its DEI commitments across the company while shaping its go-forward strategy. Most recently, Williams served as executive director, head of diversity & inclusion for U.S. banks at Morgan Stanley, where she led the DEI strategy, talent management and impact for the business.

International real-estate and investment management company JLL has appointed Andrew Linowes as clean energy public sector lead for its clean energy and infrastructure advisory team. Linowes is a vice president at the firm and has 12 years of experience in supply and demand-side energy management and financing. Prior to joining JLL, he led a team of 50 financial, project development and engineering consultants at the global professional services firm Deloitte.

Quote of the Day

“As the performance of naïve, passive ESG strategies falters and the regulators circle the wagons, sustainable investing is at a critical juncture. Investors are clear that they need more quantifiable evidence of the value and impact of ESG, and more clarity and transparency into how this investing is practiced and measured.”

Marina Severinovsky, head of sustainability for North America at multinational asset management company Schroders

Looking Ahead

•	Read our Reuters article tomorrow on how Iberia's water crisis is leaving locals on edge as forests burn.

•

The European Commission will publish a plan tomorrow outlining how countries could cut gas demand quickly to put as much as possible into storage ahead of the winter, through measures such as paying industries to cut their gas use. The EU suggestions are not binding, and it will be up to individual member states to implement them.

•	Check out our Reuters report coming out tomorrow on the scramble for a share in the home charger market as tens of millions will be installed over the next decade.

•	Europe's gas market is on edge as the end of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline's maintenance outage nears on July 21. There are still concerns that the outage will be extended.

Future of Money

Customers of crypto lender Celsius face a long and anxious wait to know how, when and even if they will get their money back after the company filed for bankruptcy, becoming one of the biggest victims of the collapse in crypto markets this year.

Citing extreme market conditions, Celsius froze withdrawals in June in a move that reverberated through the crypto world and beyond, spurring a $300 billion selloff in digital assets and leaving legions of retail investors cut off from their savings.

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